Tourism industry

Tourism and travel (including accommodation services, food and beverage services, passenger transport services, vehicle hire, travel agencies and sports, recreational and conference services), employment levels and output of the tourism industry, the number of visitors to the UK and the amount they spend.

What's in the bulletin?

There were 3.9 million visits to the UK by overseas residents in July 2018 (3% fewer than in July 2017), 3.8 million visits in August 2018 (3% fewer than in August 2017) and 3.1 million visits in September 2018 (2% fewer than in September 2017).

Overseas residents spent £2.4 billion on visits to the UK in July 2018 (17% less than in July 2017), £2.8 billion in August 2018 (9% less than in August 2017) and £2.0 billion in September 2018 (19% less than in September 2017).

There were falls in the numbers of visits compared with a year earlier, and spending by visitors, but it should be noted that both visitor numbers, and spending by these visitors, were the highest ever recorded by the International Passenger Survey in the corresponding three-month period of 2017.